New York Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard is good at Twitter.
He can be clever and ironic with the best of them. His ongoing feud with my favorite mascot, Mr. Met, is hilarious. You can follow it all at @noahsyndergaard.
During the World Series, Noah (he’s so authentic that I feel like I know him and can call him by his first name) posted a tweet that was an actual inside-baseball reference — as opposed to the unfathomable inside jokes posted by those who are bad at Twitter.
Two other major league baseball pitchers had just engaged in an entertaining back-and-forth about their on-field gaffes: Yu Darvish waited 18 months to respond to a joke Justin Verlander had posted on Twitter at his expense.
Noah posted images of both tweets and commented:
“Pitcher on Pitcher crime is a scourge on our ultimate goal to defeat our true enemy. Let us unite and rise up against our real foe…..opposing batters. #pitchersunite”
Like life, Twitter is messy and defies absolutes. The morning after I posted on my blog in praise of Noah, he tweeted a joke about two models who were banned indefinitely by Major League Baseball after flashing Astros pitcher Gerrit Cole during Game 5 of the World Series.
His tweet was questionable on several levels. It simply adds fuel to a commercial publicity stunt. It also misspelled the word “heroes.”
At least it showed a sense of humor, perhaps mostly directed at MLB itself. The league had legitimized the stunt (and encouraged future copycats) by over-reacting to the issue to begin with. Noah also subsequently poked fun at himself by revising his Twitter bio to add, “Grammar and Spelling is a work in progress.”
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Besides Thor and Yu and Justin, quite a few major league baseball players are good at Twitter. This is understandable, given all the whimsical interludes during its extended season. Even brands get in on the fun. Witness Bud Light, which managed to correctly spell heroes:
Pain is temporary, glory is forever. #WorldSeries pic.twitter.com/8fXJ7iEA7L
— Bud Light (@budlight) October 30, 2019
In fact, in the world of baseball, the Twitter is sometimes so bad that it’s good. Case in point: Former Mets first baseman, Keith Hernandez.
What Keith lacks in subtlety — or any adroitness with the medium — he makes up for in authenticity.
I’m sick with a deep chest infection. Hadji is nursing me. My buddy. pic.twitter.com/zsMz2w9bSw
— keith Hernandez (@keithhernandez) October 7, 2019
How can you not love this tweet? It features his frequent partner in crime on social media: his cat Hadji.
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It’s also particularly good Twitter practice to emulate baseball players — and professional athletes in general — as they adeptly ignore all the petty trolls and “fans” who routinely tweet profanity and insults while hiding behind anonymous Twitter handles that average about 25 followers. None of whom, evidently, are their mothers.
Professional athletes seem to understand that this ridiculous hatred (and jealousy) goes with the territory of being rich, talented and famous.
But here’s where it crosses the line into Bad Twitter: when petty trolls and “fans” attack college athletes.
The obscene vitriol that Bad Twitter directs at non-professional 20-year-olds playing college sports is astounding, and inexcusable.
Following tweets about Notre Dame during and after Michigan soundly beat its football team recently was like viewing a cesspool of humanity’s lowest common denominator.
Hundreds of people took to Twitter to expose empty lives by venting at amateur athletes, younger than themselves (or, worse, their classmates), who are competing at an elite level.
Why?
Few tweets were clever or added insight. Tweets that weren’t profane were simply inane: “Imagine being a Notre Dame fan,” taunted an anonymous someone on Twitter on Saturday night. “Lol.”
Yes, just imagine.
Always nice when moonset coincides with sunrise: pic.twitter.com/WI5xAZXDvx
— Matt Cashore (@mattcashore) October 14, 2019
Photo by Matt Cashore, reposted from Twitter, 10/14/19
Imagine the horror of rooting for a football team made up of students from a great school that prides itself on community service and academic excellence and that has produced thousands of graduates who are making a positive difference in the world.
People like Matt Cashore. Who, as those who follow @mattcashore know, is good at photography.
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Photo Credit: Noah Syndergaard/Twitter
This post was originally posted by the author here.
